> On her argument, the legalization of gambling resulted in three things:
>
> 1. the loss of income in urban areas (people supplemented their
> incomes this way. It was perfectly respectable.)
>
> 2. the need for crime families to find other ways to make money -> the
> move to drugs. Gambling became a _state_ racket
>
> 3. With a state racket in gambling, extralegal forms of gambling
> became the target of police repression.
It sounds like legalization of drugs would have exactly the same effects. Maybe all those "Legalize It" bumper-stickers are, in their own way, insidious disciplinary devices.
SA